Riverside Community College District trustees hire firm to find new chancellor

Riverside Community College District trustees have hired a recruiting firm to find a new chancellor to lead the agency.

The district, which serves 36,755 students at Riverside City College, Moreno Valley College and Norco College, is looking to replace Chancellor Michael Burke, who announced his retirement in June. His last day is Dec. 31.

Burke, who was named to the post in June 2014, informed district staff of his plans to leave two days after the board voted 3-2 to extend his contract another year through June 2019. He said at the time that the split vote was not a factor in his decision and declined to comment on the issue.

Board members voted 4-0, with trustee Janet Green absent, at a special meeting Tuesday, Aug. 29 to pick Association of Community College Trustees — Executive Search Services, to do a national search for a new chancellor. Two other consultants applied for the work.

The firm will get paid up to $60,000, for services including preparing a job description, recruiting candidates, processing applications, verifying degrees and doing criminal checks on finalists. The amount also could cover travel expenses for semi-finalists and costs for the board to visit the institution where the finalist works.

Narcisa Polonio, the company’s executive vice president for research, education and board leadership services, told the board that her firm will use an inclusive process and recruit a diverse pool of candidates.

Trustee Bill Hedrick said the company that was selected has done the most searches at the community college level.

“The consensus was they have a national reach that will ideally surface the best candidate for us, whether that person is local or across the country,” Hedrick said.

Trustees expect to make a decision by January or February, but the process could take longer and require the board to hire an […]